During the period between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, there is a flurry of activity as people begin to decorate their homes, yards, offices and even towns in celebration of the holidays. Among the more popular decorations are the stringing of lights around trees and shrubs and the erecting of cut or artificial Christmas trees. The assembly of these decorations is not always an easy task and often becomes a tedious chore. For example, a common dilemma faced by the casual homeowner when putting up a Christmas tree is trying to position the tree perpendicularly in order to achieve a true vertical position. This problem is even more acute when the homeowner attempts to assemble an artificial Christmas tree on uneven ground as an outdoor decoration. Often, outdoor artificial Christmas trees are difficult to assemble and raise to a true vertical position. Another quandary faced by the homeowner is keeping the strings of lights on the trees
The prior art discloses numerous types of artificial Christmas trees for indoor and/or outdoor use. However, these artificial trees are not constructed in a manner which would allow one to spike the tree in uneven ground and then easily adjust the tree to a true vertical position. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,865,676 to Bogart et al. discloses an artificial tree construction wherein a post of a standard tree trunk is provided with limb assemblies having an elongated column or spine member. At a plurality of locations along the back or bottom well of the spine member, there are formed pairs of gripping fingers or clips. The top of the trunk is provided with a large opening that forms a tongue and notch system for retaining the frame struts or arms.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,654,427 to Modlariz, an artificial Christmas tree is disclosed comprising a trunk having a straight vertical staff of cylindrical form. A plurality of equally spaced rods of resilient wire have their upper ends adjacent and secured to the trunk and are tensioned to spring inwardly. When set up for use, means are provided for releasably maintaining the rods in an outwardly spread downwardly diverging relation, such as by radial rods hinged at their outer ends to the lower ends of the rods. U.S. Pat. No. 3,819,459 to Wren discloses an artificial tree assembly having a plurality of angular elements supported on and attached to a base member to define at least a portion of a cone. The angular members include (1) arms which extend radially from the base member and (2) upright strut members which extend upwardly and inwardly from the outer end of the arm members to the apex of the cone. A plurality of electrical light bulbs are threaded into the arm members and upright strut members. A foldable Christmas tree is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,140,823 to Weskamp comprising a tubular member or trunk collar for retaining branches. The trunk collar has a U-shaped configuration for receiving branch connecting arms.
Although the prior art is replete with indoor and outdoor artificial Christmas trees, all these devices have limitations or disadvantages associated therewith including, for example, (1) the amount of material used, (2) then length of time required to assemble the Christmas tree, (3) the inability to adjust the Christmas tree to its true vertical position, (4) the inability to secure the Christmas tree on uneven ground, (5) the degree of difficulty of assembling the Christmas tree, (6) the relative expense of the Christmas tree, (7) the difficulty and length of time required to dismantle the Christmas tree, and (8) the relatively large amount of space required to store the tree when not in use.
Despite the teachings of the prior art, a need still exists for an artificial Christmas tree, especially for outdoor use, which can be safely anchored to an uneven surface and adjusted to a true vertical position. Such an artificial Christmas tree should be relatively inexpensive, simple to assemble and easy to disassemble and store in a compact manner.